Some U.S. companies that offered discount programs and other services to the National Rifle Association are ending them as the powerful lobbying group fights efforts to restrict firearm sales following a deadly school shooting in Florida.
MetLife, the New York-based insurer that offered price breaks on auto insurance to group members, said Friday that it would stop doing so. “We value all our customers but have decided to end our discount program with the NRA,” the company said in a statement.
First National Bank of Omaha, a closely held lender that issued an NRA-branded credit card, said on Twitter earlier this week that it wouldn’t renew that contract after a review based on “customer feedback.”
Auto-rental service Enterprise, which offered price breaks to NRA members through three brands that included National and Alamo, is ending the program March 26, according to statements the St. Louis-based company posted on Twitter. Hotel-chain Wyndham Worldwide, meanwhile, said it ended its relationship with the lobbying group in late 2017.
All four companies shared their decisions on Twitter as users reacted to the killings of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Fla., by calling for a boycott of companies doing business with the NRA, an ardent opponent of gun-control efforts.
The rifle association didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
The man police identified as the shooter in the Florida case, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, used a Colt AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, which he had purchased legally, in the attacks. The teenager, who had received marksmanship training in a Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program supported by the NRA Foundation, also owned at least six other long guns, police said.
In the days since Cruz’s rampage at the school, survivors and relatives of victims have begun a vigorous campaign to restrict sales of automatic weapons and improve safety at the nation’s schools. Questions have been raised about whether the age at which guns can be purchased legally should be raised to 21 and how Cruz, who had been previously flagged to authorities after threatening statements, passed a background check.
President Trump, whose 2016 campaign was backed by the NRA, has met with the students and suggested arming some well-trained school staffers as a preventive measure while backing a higher minimum age requirement and more thorough background checks.
The chief executive nonetheless maintained his loyalty to the firearms lobby, whose executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, denounced gun control efforts this week.
The movement’s supporters are fighting “to eliminate the Second Amendment,” the constitutional provision that guarantees the right to bear arms, “and our firearms freedoms, so they can eradicate all individual freedoms,” he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday.
